Exploring the reality behind exclusionary deals with Microsoft and their subtle (yet severe) implications
Summary: News about SLES, especially as an appliance but also as a server that IBM commonly uses
THE NEXT WEEK will bring announcements about SLE*, but this week was mostly quiet. Here is a new video of the Novell SUSE Appliance product launch.
Summary: News and coverage concerning the distributions which joined Microsoft’s patent racket against GNU/Linux
GroundWork continues to favour SLES for some reason and there is a new press release about it.
GroundWork Open Source, Inc. (GWOS http://www.gwos.com), the leader in commercial open source systems and network management software, today announced it will conclude the GWOS barCAMP Deux sessions with an exclusive release of a SUSE powered Virtual Appliance package that integrates GroundWork Monitor Enterprise 6.1 with Zendesk (www.zendesk.com).
At the high end, IBM deploys SLES for some large companies with mission-critical systems.
Implementing an IBM System z10 Enterprise Linux Server helps EFiS EDI Finance Service AG save money and the environment
Here is some guidance for anyone who wants SLED 11 installed on this HP hardware:
However, we still tested the stock version and came away impressed. For the vast majority of computing tasks – using Evolution to check your POP mail, burning a DVD disc using LightScribe (included with this SLED build) and even playing games or watching movies – the Elite 7000 is up to the task. Where we noticed a performance degradation is when we compared Linux-to-Linux between this system and a home-built PC that uses an SSD drive, an Nvidia Quadro CX graphics card and has 6GB of RAM. There was no comparison, of course – the home-built system was snappier even for popping up Firefox, copying files and running simulations with a program like Autodesk Revit Architecture (which normally prefers a workstation PC).
That’s about it when it comes to SLE*.
Another distribution that we name “Ballnux” would have to be Xandros because Linspire and Turbolinux are more or less history. Here is a little new rant about Xandros:
Linpus and Xandros aren’t looking quite so exciting. Of course, that could change as smartbooks with ARM-based processors start to hit the market, since they’re not capable of running Windows.
Not looking like Windows does not make something deficient. People don’t need Windows, they just need something that works. But anyway, Lindows, which was bought by Xandros in its “Linspire” form, is now being called one of the “worst products ever”.
9. Lindows
The hype was palpable surrounding Lindows: it was going to be a Linux operating system that provided full compatibility with Windows. Microsoft didn’t take kindly to this and even sued, unsuccessfully, saying that Lindows was infringing its Windows copyright. The court case just added to the excitement.
Xandros never did anything substantial with Linspire, not even with CNR.
Microsoft is also extorting Linux phones and Samsung lets Microsoft get its way. Here is a new discussion about Samsung’s Android phones and about Bada:
Many people think of it as a poor thought, but Samsung has made it clear that Samsung Bada is being launched to make smartphones accessible to everyone. The smartphone market is still in its growing phase and Bada platform aims at improving the current situation.
Bada is mostly a layer and the platform that’s underneath benefits Microsoft if people buy their phones from Samsung. █
Summary: Very little SUSE coverage with substance; a lot of coverage about Bada and LG’s plan to make an e-reader (probably Ballnux based)
IT HAS been a very quiet couple of weeks for SUSE. Apart from some PR rambles about SUSE appliances [1, 2, 3, 4] (mostly recycling of old news), it turns out that Novell is paying RedMonk for some public shows about SUSE.
Summary: Microsoft disappoints many people with its announcement of a product that shows little progress; Microsoft’s plan B still relies on the Novell-inspired patent deals
“Microsoft made a phone, and I hate it already,” says this headline from The Register. It’s just an exercise in rebranding with “7″ because Windows Mobile in inherently poor.
Microsoft’s next mobile platform will probably make for nice mobile phones, but for those of us hankering after a mobile computer it’s just going to be annoying.
The former editor of Microsoft Watch, Joe Wilcox, is not impressed by Windows Phone 7, either.
“So what does Microsoft do to gain some more attention? On the face of it, fake hype.”Android and Linux (MeeGo and LiMo for example) are actually quite dominant in the news from the big event called Mobile World Congress and Apple is pretty much absent, except in its closed, echo chamber events. So what does Microsoft do to gain some more attention? On the face of it, fake hype.
Earlier this month we showed what appeared like fake "leaks" whose purpose was to create Windows Phone 7 hype. In order to increase audience size, Microsoft is possibly producing some more fake “leaks” and right now it claims that its site is down due to “unexpected” demand. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft lacks server capacity.
“Due to the unexpected number of click-thru’s to the Windows phone 7 Series website it’s decided to crash, will have it back up asap,” he said on his Twitter account about two hours ago.
Sounds like a potential fake. Our reader Omar Hafez says: “If Apple want to prove how really dumb they are, they would let MS’s new blatant cloning of the iPhone slip without the lawsuit.” Another reader writes about “what Gates really thought of the iPod”. He links to some Comes vs Microsoft exhibits, namely PX07255 and PX07219. This couple of exhibits are of interest in this context. These relate to recent comments on the iPhone — ones that came from Gates. If one reads the Comes documents, s/he can contrast that with his current utterances. A case of “temporal cognitive dyslexia” as our reader calls it? In Exhibit PX07255, one finds E-mails from 2003 where Jim Allchin and others bemoan Apple’s success and say: “There is no question we are being clocked by Apple in a number of dimensions.” In PX07219, Gates said about the iPod: “Warren Buffett just loves the thing.”
Gates is now saying: “So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.”
The translation of which can go like this (from our reader): “It’s not that Microsoft failed with their own clone of the iPhone, it’s that they didn’t aim high enough. Could’ve beat Apple if we tried… sour grapes anyone?”
The phone from Microsoft resembles Sidekick (an acquisition of Danger, former home of Android's brainchild), which we wrote about in:
Going back to Windows Phone 7, Glyn Moody jokes about Microsoft “building on the success of the *Zune*: only MS could do that”. The Zune was an utter disaster and Microsoft has just appointed new managers (the previous ones quit in droves) who are mostly unknown and inexperienced.
Version 7 of Windows Mobile may be as as insignificant as Windows Mobile 6.5. This is good news for the many Linux phones, which Microsoft is still trying to tax with software patents, as it already does in LG and Samsung. We will write about this on Saturday. In the mean time, here is an old reminder of how Microsoft uses the Novell deal to achieve this.
Qualified as “symbolic” by several editors of daily newspapers, the agreement signed by Microsoft and Novell on November 2, 2006 is indeed just such. But it doesn’t not make a good news for Free Software. Through buzzwords as “interoperability” or “open standards”, Microsoft managed to divert the journalists’ attention from the essence of the agreement: Microsoft only embraces Novell to try to suffocate better Free Software in general.
The first issue with this agreement is that Novell agrees to pay a tithe for the distribution of copies of popular free software containing code which supposedly falls under the purview of Microsoft patents. The Linux kernel and various pieces of software used on computer servers are concerned. In return, Novell obtains the guarantee that Microsoft will not pursue it, nor its customers. Developers contributing to OpenSuse, the community version of Novell’s commercial offer (Suse), as well as the voluntary free software developers, would also be authorized to contribute to the free programs listed in the agreement.
Jeremy Allison, a former Novell employee who left the company in protest against this deal, recently told the crowd in LCA 2010 that Microsoft would try to use those software patents to collect revenue from Linux phones [1, 2]. Microsoft cannot compete in phones, but it still strives to take away money from those who succeed. █
Summary: News about the different types of “Ballnux” distributions (ones from which Microsoft extracts profit through intimidation and collusion)
THERE HAS BEEN NO major news about SLE* in the month of February, but the product in being used or deployed in some areas. Novell’s marketing people write about the SUSE appliance of ROC EasySpooler. Here is the press release (also here):
ROC Software Systems Inc. announces the first release of the ROC EasySpooler SUSE-powered appliance. Based on the reliable ROC EasySpooler core technology and a fully supported version of SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, the appliance provides the highest level of print output management available to any business environment.
Here is something related that was mentioned two or three weeks ago when the press release came out.
Summary: Novell’s most major announcement this time around is SUSE Appliance Toolkit and there is news from phone makers that pay Microsoft for GNU and/or Linux
OVER THE past couple of weeks there has been almost nothing to see here, until a few days ago when Novell announced SUSE Appliance Toolkit. Here are Novell’s PR people promoting it and here is the press release (also here). Some sites are pretty much reposting the press release (because it’s easier) and this product around “Appliance” is similar to Studio, so the very recent departure of Friedman is interesting. He played a key role in SUSE Studio. Anyway, here is IDG’s coverage of this: (also here, here, here, here, and here)
Novell on Tuesday will offer a package of tools enabling development of software appliances that bundle the application, application server, OS, and database into a single virtual machine image.
[...]
The toolkit costs $100,000 for enterprises but is free for ISVs, who would build a business model around Suse Enterprise Linux.
The other sources [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] still leave us with the impression that it’s very expensive. Who would select such a product and why? Similar things can be achieved free of charge given skillful people. Novell is selling proprietary software around SUSE. it’s not new.
Summary: Patent tax is rammed down people’s throats in New Zealand; Rambus gets about a billion dollars from Samsung after an ambush; Google vainly claims ownership of MapReduce
AT the behest of big corporations, politicians are now trying to advance ACTA [1, 2, 3], which is the wishlist of those seeking to maximise profits and marginalise rights.
As we have shown here before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], the ACTA [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14] is also a weapon for a monopolist like Microsoft, not just the copyright cartel. ACTA can make Free/libre software illegal and this issue is being raised in LCA, which takes place in New Zealand (NZ). To quote the opening of a new IDG article: (also published here and here)
Open source under threat from ‘grey’ IP laws
[...]
In a presentation at this year’s Linux.conf.au Linux and open source conference in Wellington, New Zealand, Jackson said free software remains under threat from the expansion of copyright, misguided software patents, the desire to control the Internet by companies whose business model it threatens and the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) treaty.
Crikey.com.au writes about this too:
The copyright outrage the geeks forgot to mention
[...]
I know this to be true because I’m at what’s undoubtedly the geekiest place in the Southern Hemisphere right now: linux.conf.au 2010, the annual gathering of Australian Linux enthusiasts. With commendable broad-mindedness, this year’s event is actually taking place in Wellington. Yes, in New Zealand. You’ve probably heard of it.
You might just have heard of Linux, the open source operating system favoured by people who know Windows is too unstable and Macs are too expensive. If you haven’t, just imagine a random mixture of your work IT department, some super-enthusiastic students and some scarily clever people, and a penguin mascot. There’s about 700 Linux supporters in Wellington this week, and they know more about technology than you (or I) will ever manage.
But back to the main issue. When ACTA got mentioned during a linux.conf.au keynote presentation by NYU anthropology professor Gabriella Coleman, the audience reaction was instantaneous: much booing and hissing. This crowd knew that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was potentially very bad news. But that bad news hasn’t been passed along much, even though a crucial meeting to decide the future of the proposal will take place next week.
“NZ is pushing for software patents,” says the president of the FFII, “the law is NZ has been postponed because of number of submissions.” We wrote about this last week.
FurnaceBoy says that “there’s a bit of history there in NZ… regarding the pro-Microsoft factions there, especially lobbying government.”
“The patent ambush is shameful and Rambus should be denied the patent and forced to refund their extortion money (the loot)…”New Zealand hopefully pays attention to the worrisome developments which are occurring in its patent law [1, 2]. Microsoft New Zealand, which is in a bit of a chaos these days, is always trying block Free software in New Zealand — if not by back-room deals, then using legal means. This afternoon we mentioned the New Zealand government attempting a migration to GNU/Linux on the desktop. It is a development like this which usually leads Microsoft CEO to making emergency trips (like the one to Munich [1, 2]) and ‘pulling an EDGI’.
In other patent news, the Rambus ambush (submarine patent) is again being exploited in order to extort competitors [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. The patent ambush is shameful and Rambus should be denied the patent and forced to refund their extortion money (the loot); instead, Rambus’ extortion racket finds another victim, this time Samsung.
KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung has raised a white flag and agreed to pay $900 million to make Rambus lawyers go away.
More here:
It was a good day at the office yesterday for Rambus; it made $900m when Samsung caved in on the eve of a court case, which the Korean firm had planned to fight alongside Hynix and Micron.
Slashdot reveals that the “do no evil” company has just earned a monopoly on MapReduce:
theodp writes “Two years ago, David DeWitt and Michael Stonebraker deemed MapReduce a major step backwards (here are the original paper and a defense of it) that ‘represents a specific implementation of well known techniques developed nearly 25 years ago.’ A year later, the pair teamed up with other academics and eBay to slam MapReduce again. But the very public complaints didn’t stop Google from demanding a patent for MapReduce; nor did it stop the USPTO from granting Google’s request (after four rejections). On Tuesday, the USPTO issued U.S. Patent No. 7,650,331 to Google for inventing Efficient Large-Scale Data Processing.”
Ars Technica correctly points out that Google may just be claiming ownership of a public good (taking away from the commons).
The USPTO awarded search giant Google a software method patent that covers the principle of distributed MapReduce, a strategy for parallel processing that is used by the search giant. If Google chooses to aggressively enforce the patent, it could have significant implications for some open source software projects that use the technique, including the Apache Foundation’s popular Hadoop software framework.
The H says:
The concept of mapping and reducing fuctions has been a fundamental idea behind distributed parallel processing for many years, and in a dispute it could be reasonably claimed that Google didn’t invent MapReduce itself, but that would just move the argument on to the specific claims within the patent.
For Google, this already acts as a weapon that intimidates competitors. It gives Google leverage that it probably does not deserve; the matter of fact is that many nice inventions are never claimed by anyone in the form of a patent, until some greedy corporation comes along and decides to become “first to file”. Many simple “inventions” — PageRank included — come from academia (Stanford in Google’s case) and TechDirt debates whether or not academic research should be eligible to earn patents; after all, the purpose of patents is not to promote creation but to exclude parallel innovation, which is crucial in the mostly taxpayers-funded academic community, unlike in a shareholders-driven industry.
Should Data Collected For Academic Research Get Intellectual Property Protection?
[...]
Now, while the economic setup in the academic world may seem to be slightly different (researchers aren’t necessarily trying to maximize revenue), the overall incentive structure remains effectively the same (and money is still a part of it all). Freeing up your data so that more people can analyze it increases the overall value of the data and is more likely to lead to additional breakthroughs or interesting findings from that data. In turn, that can lead back to more interest for the original data collector and more opportunities to do more or to be involved in more relevant projects. Locking up the data, on the other hand, takes away many of those incentives for no clear benefit.
In my thesis I was strictly required to exclude others by including a statement about ownership of something called “intellectual property” (which I don’t believe in and in fact all my code is Free software). Universities really ought to rethink this if they want to innovate rather than exclude. Ideas do not spread and inspire others by decreasing their distribution and means of dissemination. The Internet has changed everything and regulations should change accordingly (in the arts, in software, and in knowledge). █
“People naively say to me, “If your program is innovative, then won’t you get the patent?” This question assumes that one product goes with one patent.” —Richard Stallman
“The day that the software sector forms a clear front against software patents, as pharma does for a unitary patent system… will be the day our cause comes close to winning.” —Pieter Hintjens, Fosdem07 Interview
Summary: Novell’s renewed relationships with HP, MSI; Samsung moves to Moblin for sub-notebooks and LG uses Moblin for smartphones
THE BIGGEST story is still the MSI-Novell collaboration (announced in CES), which puts SUSE on some more sub-notebooks.
Ben Kevan caught up with this news and so did some of the press. More in:
MSI is currently working with multiple software vendors to try and see which product will best enhance the mobile user experience. Along with using Windows 7 for their current line, they are also partnering with Novell Linux using their Moblin netbook operating system. Trying it out first hand, the netbook seemed fast and very user friendly. This type of interface offers a different look when compared to the Microsoft counterpart, the Linux variant actually seems to be more integrated with the social portal experien
Similarly, HP puts SUSE on sub-notebooks (it also uses a home-grown Ubuntu derivative) and this continues to receive coverage:
The HP Mini 5102 Netbook offers a 10.1 inch touchscreen display with multitouch support, 1GB of RAM, and the Intel Atom N450 processor. The touch-enabled HP Netbook ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition (including face recognition) or SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.
It seems like a good plan with HP as the backbone.
So Var Guy is pleased and SJVN is happy with two forms of Ballnux (Samsung and SUSE) just because these contain Linux. He writes:
Shame on me, I missed that during last week’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show), MSI wasn’t the only company to announce the release of a SUSE/Moblin Linux-powered netbook. Samsung also announced that they’ll be releasing this Linux mix on its N127 netbook.
Separately, SJVN wrote about Novell Linux Certified Engineers in this new article:
Beyond the Red Hat certifications, I’ve also heard good things about Novell’s NLCE (Novell Linux Certified Engineer). The other Novell certifications can also land you a job.
Both the Novell and the Red Hat certification families are for more advanced system and network administrators. If you want to get an entry-level Linux job, you should look into the Linux Professional Institute’s entry-level LPIC-1. This vendor-neutral certification probably delivers the best bang for the buck for someone’s who new to Linux.
Here is a desktop GNU/Linux comparison involving Novell.
While you can still download many free versions of Linux online, for convenience sake, several vendors offer user-friendly versions and charge a fee for support. Red Hat and Novell are the primary desktop Linux vendors, accounting for nearly 95 percent of the operating system revenue in 2008, according to IDC.
Revenue is not the way to measure share. This is why IDC statistics tend to be a load of nonsense, also on the server side. More expensive products get more “share”.
Linux.com (Foundation/Development Network) has this new article which focuses on SUSE success stories in terminals/registers.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Novell has a fully ready enterprise-level POS flavor in their product line: SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service. Novell has recently been talking up the fact that SLE POS has been deployed at Office Depot, National Vision, and Sherman-Williams.
Is Linux the magic bullet for POS machines? There may be a little work to go, but not much. If these POS applications can be easily connected to accounting databases for small- to medium-sized business owners, then the sky’s the limit. We may already be at that point.
So when you’re checking out that shiny new Linux device, take a look at the cash register screen: you may just see a familiar penguin looking back at you.
Here is another advertisement for SUSE, with only SUSE stories. Not surprisingly, it was put there by a Novell marketer:
Meike Chabowski is a Product Marketing Manager for Enterprise Linux Servers at Novell. Her responsibilities include Linux for Retail and Linux on the Mainframe.
The headline talks about “Linux”, but the content/body is focused on SUSE, which the author is trying to sell.
Samsung was mentioned a little earlier. Despite its proximity to Linux, it is trouble in the sense that it enables Microsoft to charge for the use of Linux (a lot of people still don’t know this). Samsung is entering the sub-notebooks market with Moblin:
Samsung aren’t the only ones toying with Moblin on netbooks. MSI is planning a U135 netbook with SUSE Linux and the Moblin UI. Novell has worked hard to get boot times down to 30 seconds. This particular model is planned to launch in February. Liliputing spotted one of these at CES and shot a quick hands-on video that we’ve attached below.
Samsung is no longer just about phones when it comes to GNU/Linux.
LG — like Samsung — is not just Korea based but it will also make use of an Intel-controlled distribution (in the hands of the Linux Foundation, but guided by Intel). Smartphones from LG will make use of Moblin:
Yesterday, at the Consumer Electronics Show, LG surprised everyone by taking the wraps off its latest smartphone, the GW990, the first ever device designed to run on Intel’s Moorestown platform, which makes the use of Intel’s Moblin Linux operating system.
Also see:
• LG GW990 Announced at CES 2010
• LG uncovers Atom-powered GW990 smartphone
• LG employs Intel for powerhouse smartphone
• Intel Powerhouse LG GW990 Seen at CES, But Can it be Called a Phone?
• LG shows Moorestown phone running Moblin
• LG unveils slew of new handsets
• LG GW990 Intel Powered Smartphone
Intel and LG have teamed up to release a new smartphone which is powered by Intel’s Moorestown processor, and will run Intel’s Moblin 2.1 Linux based OS.
The 4.8″ 1024 x 480 pixel display is the most immediately obvious feature of the LG GW990, and a consequence this is a really big device, by our reckoning it has a footprint of around 140 x 60mm.
[...]
The LG GW990 runs the Moblin operating system, a product of the Linux Foundation. Moblin is pitched at products from netbooks to what they call “mobile internet devices”, so it is aimed at that market segment between (say) Android on smartphones and Ubuntu on full-blown PCs.
LG pays Microsoft for Linux and the Korea Times says that “LG [is] to Keep Partnership With Microsoft”:
LG Electronics will keep the strategic partnership with Microsoft though its U.S. partner has recently been struggling due to the skyrocketing consumer demand for Google-powered Android phones, a company executive said.
Ahn Seung-kwon, president of LG’s mobile communications division, said the world’s third-biggest handset vendor after Nokia and Samsung, however, will heavily bet on phones with Google’s Android operating system.
“MS Windows Mobile operating system is rather unqualified in mobile interfaces. Despite such worries, the partnership with Microsoft is still safe,” Ahn said at a press conference in Seoul.
LG is one of the companies that lost Linux focus after signing a Microsoft patent deal. Many Asian companies are using Linux for mobile devices nonetheless. █
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